Cameron County Tax Assessor-Collector Tony Yzaguirre and three tax office employees arrested Wednesday on public corruption charges are accused of issuing fake vehicle registrations in exchange for cash, according to an affidavit.

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The men face charges that include bribery, engaging in organized crime and abuse of official capacity.

Last September, a confidential informant met with Yzaguirre to register three vehicles to three different people and addresses, the affidavit says. The vehicle titles were surrendered to the Texas Department of Motor Vehicles because they had been junked.

While waiting for Yzaguirre to arrive at his office, the informant encountered Jose Mireles, the chief of investigations and enforcement at the county tax office. Mireles had allegedly told Pedro Garza, also a tax office investigator, that the confidential informant had been adjusting his wire in the restroom.

Mireles and Garza work in the auto theft department of the tax office.

Yzaguirre instructed Garza to search the informant even after the informant denied having a wire. When a recording device could not be found, Garza quipped that the wire was up the informant’s rectum, the affidavit says.

The informant eventually paid the official amount of $819 to register the vehicles, then placed $300 in an envelope for Yzaguirre, according to the affidavit.

The informant told the Texas Rangers when there is a problem with a vehicle or a registration the informant can arrange to meet with Yzaguirre for a fee of $100 per vehicle.

During an undercover operation in December, a confidential informant paid Yzaguirre $200 to register two vehicles. The informant did not provide Yzaguirre identification documents because the persons seeking to register the vehicles do not exist, according to the affidavit. Omar Sanchez-Paz, a tax office clerk, processed the registration, the affidavit says.

Mireles, Garza, and Sanchez-Paz also were arrested Wednesday.

Yzaguirre was charged with four counts of bribery, a second degree felony, engaging in organized crime and abuse of official capacity. All four men are out on bond.